Project ComeBack

Project ComeBack provides support for people, primarily veterans, as they process trauma by involving mutually beneficial interactions between horses and humans. The goal of our program is to improve trauma symptoms in people and create a space in which they can develop healthy coping strategies and interpersonal skills for real-world application. Our focus is to help people step outside of themselves, to guide them in helping something bigger than themselves (physically and metaphorically), and as a result experience organic healing for themselves as they help a horse along a healing journey of its own.

We put the horse first for this reason, and for the reason that any program offering "healing" cannot come at the cost of another being. Our goal is to help our rescued horses overcome the traumas that they have endured before arriving at our sanctuary, whether mental, physical, emotional or a combination. We focus primarily on the horse's healing and do not call what we do "therapy" because we find healing is less likely to happen for the person if they are on the defense and closed off to the experience. If a person feels like they need to be fixed, we notice their walls are up. Your own self is often the hardest person to help, so we shift the focus. We share the story of the horse, not just as a living being, but as an individual. We share the traumas we know each horse has endured, and the traumas we can only assume they have lived based on their current behaviors, fears and aversions.

We find that through sharing the horse's story people can connect with parts of that story, and start to draw parallels to their own stories, without the focus being on their own trauma. As they help the horse find healing, they too find healing. The traumas that our horses are healing from are wide in variety, and connect with the differing past experiences of each person who comes to help the horses heal.

Our holistic approach to helping both horse and human heal takes into consideration the health and wellbeing of both parties, without compromising the horse. One of Project ComeBack's foundational best practices is consent based work with the horses and making sure people feel like partners in the process of helping the horses heal. No human is made to feel that they are coming to our program because they need to be fixed, and no animal's individual free will is compromised. We work with the concepts of One Welfare and focus on the equine perspective with the purpose of improving our understanding of equine social lives and wellbeing so that we can share that perspective with the people who come out to help the horses heal. The cornerstone of our mission is how we work with the horses, and that never changes or is compromised. It is always horse centered first.

This approach allows us to be fluid with the populations we work with. Another one of our foundational best practices is that we only offer programming in collaboration and guidance with people who represent the population we are trying to reach. We recognize and value that personal lived experience is the ultimate expertise which is why we only offer our program in partnership with people who represent the population we are trying to serve. We feel the phrase "nothing about us without us" encompasses our philosophy perfectly, meaning no program will be designed or run without input and assistance from the people who represent the population we are wanting to serve. We are doing our best to incorporate this perspective from the equine side as well. For veterans this means we always have at least one veteran liaison present during programming and curriculum development. As we expand to offer our horse centered programming to other populations it means we will always have someone who represents that population present throughout every step.

Beyond having representatives of the population we strive to work with we have a team of incredibly talented professionals including those licensed in mental health. While what we offer is not technically a "therapy", we want to make sure people feel comfortable and confident in our organization and program. We find that when there is a therapist somewhere in the mix people feel supported.

Given the nature of our programming, the skill set of our facilitators and our collaborations, we can adapt our activities to serve veterans with a wide range of disabilities including amputees, spinal cord injury, blind/visual impairment, deaf/hearing impaired and individuals with PTSD. Our staff has expertise in designing accessible, trauma-informed curricula for individuals with a range of accessibility challenges, and we have experience working with participants with mobility restrictions, as well as deaf-blind participants. Our collaboration with a Certified Recreation Therapist and an Occupational Therapist with military experience results in a strong team capable of adapting our programming as needed to maximize accessibility.

The program design focuses on aligning human wellbeing and mental health with existing and emerging research in human-animal interactions and impacts on both human and animal participants. Basic principles of these levels align with current recommendations from the International Association of Human-Animal Interaction Organizations (IAHAIO) for improved standards in animal-assisted interventions, the updated five domains of welfare that include animal-human interactions (Mellor et al., 2020), and correlations of human-animal interactions to human interpersonal relationships. Each educational module is based on existing research in horses and horse-human interactions with the goal of providing participants with an ethical model for handling equines that creates opportunities to train veterans in handling techniques that improve the well-being of horses and through these structured interactions provides mental health benefits to participants.

Project ComeBack has partnered with the following organizations and people to help improve and develop programming and increase opportunities for veterans: David Shanahan who is a graduate of our Project ComeBack Level 1 training and will serve as our Veteran Liaison and first Veteran Peer Support Specialist; Dr. Helen Sabolek Consiglio who holds a PhD in Behavioral Neuroscience and is an Associate Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at Regis College with special interest in equine-human interactions; Dr. Emily Kieson who holds a PhD in Comparative Psychology, an MS in Psychology, a graduate degree in Equine Science and numerous certifications in equine-assisted services and serves as Executive Director of Equine International, a 501c3 research institute; Stephanie Ault who is a psychotherapist and holds an MS in mental health counseling; and Anna Nolan who is a nationally certified American Sign Language (ASL)/English interpreter and the Assistant Director of Communication Access at Advocates, a large human services provider serving many regions in Massachusetts.
Project ComeBack has also partnered with Regis College and Equine International for ongoing research projects in equine-assisted activities and mutual well-being of horses and humans.

Project ComeBack is led by Lindsay Andon who has successfully created and grown the programming at the organization for 6 years and has had 58 participants complete the program as well as helping to give 53 animals a healthier and happier home.

Our Level 1 and 2 programs consist of six-week cohort model in which veterans/service members choose a rescue horse they wish to work with over the duration of the six-week session. Many veterans find that the history of a particular horse resonates with them and draws them toward working with that equine. All work is unmounted and conducted in the field with freely moving rescue horses to allow us to focus on building trust and connection between horse and human, and among the veterans within each cohort. We focus on building skills to facilitate clear communication and connection. Both locations are quiet settings surrounded by nature. Each class within the 6-week session is 2.5 hours in length and consists of mindfulness activities, an interactive education segment in which veterans learn about horse behavior and communication, and time spent in the field interacting with the horses under the guidance of Project ComeBack staff. Our yoga instructors are specifically trained to work with veterans through the Warriors at Ease training protocol. Our program aims to improve mental health outcomes by using a strengths-based model in which veterans’ experiences provide a valuable tool for building connection with rescue horses and fostering resilience in our horse and human participants. Our participants often request to repeat programming, continue as a volunteer, and refer others to the program. This year we will begin qualitative assessments to gauge the impact of the programs on participants.